The Vickers Vanox was a British
biplane
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...
bomber
A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped ...
design intended as a successor to the
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
for the
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
. Although it underwent extensive development, it was not successful, only a single aircraft being built.
Design and development
Conceived as a biplane powered by the
Bristol Jupiter
The Bristol Jupiter was a British nine-cylinder single-row piston radial engine built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. Originally designed late in World War I and known as the Cosmos Jupiter, a lengthy series of upgrades and developments turn ...
radial engine it would have much better performance than the Virginia with similar engines. Initially a private venture, the submission of the Vickers design to the
Air Ministry
The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the Secretary of State ...
coincided with the issuing of
Air Ministry specification
This is a partial list of the British Air Ministry (AM) specifications for aircraft. A specification stemmed from an Operational Requirement, abbreviated "OR", describing what the aircraft would be used for. This in turn led to the specification ...
B.19/27 for a Virginia replacement.
The B.19/27 specification meant that the Vickers submission would be tested competitively in trials against other manufacturer's designs. In the redesign to meet the specification, the B.19/27 project took the Virginia Mark X all moving
rudder
A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally aircraft, air or watercraft, water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to ...
together with an all-moving
tailplane
A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabiliser, is a small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplane ...
. Three designs were submitted in total; two biplanes with Jupiter and geared
Bristol Mercury
The Bristol Mercury is a British nine-cylinder, air-cooled, single-row, piston radial engine. Designed by Roy Fedden of the Bristol Aeroplane Company it was used to power both civil and military aircraft of the 1930s and 1940s. Developed from ...
engines respectively and a
monoplane
A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes.
A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...
version. The Mercury-engined design, the Vickers Type 150 was selected by the Ministry for consideration and building, now to be funded by the Ministry, started. Partway through it was agreed that an alternative engine was allowable, the Rolls-Royce F.XIV (later developed into the
Rolls-Royce Kestrel
The Kestrel or type F is a 21 litre (1,300 in³) 700 horsepower (520 kW) class V-12 aircraft engine from Rolls-Royce, their first cast-block engine and the pattern for most of their future piston-engine designs. Used during the interwar pe ...
).
The aircraft flew for the first time on 30 November 1929.
The aircraft was a two-bay biplane of all-metal construction, with a biplane tailplane and with the two engines mounted between the wings.
Initial testing and evaluation showed that the aircraft had poor handling, being unstable laterally, prone to
Dutch roll
Dutch roll is a type of aircraft motion consisting of an out-of-phase combination of "tail-wagging" (yaw) and rocking from side to side (roll). This yaw-roll coupling is one of the basic flight dynamic modes (others include phugoid, short per ...
and to severe flexing of the rear fuselage.
[Andrews and Morgan 1988, p.259] Following a forced landing it was rebuilt incorporating recommendations made in reports from Ministry test pilots to try to resolve these problems, and was powered by Kestrel III engines. It was then given the name Vickers Vanox by Vickers.
These changes did not solve the aircraft's handling problems, and the sweepback of the wings was reduced, which did resolve the handling problems. The Kestrel engines proved unreliable,
[Andrews and Morgan 1988, p.261] and were replaced by more powerful
Bristol Pegasus
The Bristol Pegasus is a British nine-cylinder, single-row, air-cooled radial aero engine. Designed by Roy Fedden of the Bristol Aeroplane Company, it was used to power both civil and military aircraft of the 1930s and 1940s. Developed from t ...
radial engines. In this form, the aircraft was designated the Vickers Type 195 Vanox, and was demonstrated to meet the requirements of specification.
Following further modifications in February 1933 to improve performance, with extended, three-bay wings being fitted, it was now designated the Type 255. However, by this time, the competing
Handley Page Heyford
The Handley Page Heyford was a twin-engine biplane bomber designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Handley Page. It holds the distinction of being the last biplane heavy bomber to be operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF).
The ...
and
Fairey Hendon
The Fairey Hendon was a British monoplane, heavy bomber of the Royal Air Force, designed by Fairey Aviation in the late 1920s. The aircraft served in small numbers with one squadron of the RAF between 1936 and 1939. It was the first all-metal lo ...
bombers had already been ordered into production, so the sole Type 255 was used for
aerial refuelling
Aerial refueling, also referred to as air refueling, in-flight refueling (IFR), air-to-air refueling (AAR), and tanking, is the process of transferring aviation fuel from one aircraft (the tanker) to another (the receiver) while both aircraft a ...
trials work by the
Royal Aircraft Establishment
The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), bef ...
, being flown for the last time on 7 January 1938.
Specifications (Type 150)
See also
References
* Andrews, E.N.; Morgan, E.B. ''Vickers Aircraft Since 1908'', London: Putnam, Second Edition, 1988. .
* Mason, Francis K. ''The British Bomber since 1914''. London: Putnam Aeronautical Books, 1994. .
External links
Vickers Vanox– British Aircraft Directory
{{Vickers aircraft
1920s British bomber aircraft
Vanox
Cancelled military aircraft projects of the United Kingdom
Biplanes
Aircraft first flown in 1929
Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft